Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Where Does The U.S. Rank For Maternal/Child Health?

The Save The Children Foundation has just released it’s 13th annual report on maternal/child health. They rank 165 countries on maternal education, nutrition, mortality rates, maternity leave and other issues. It might surprise you to find out the United States ranks just 25th in this report, and that’s actually an improvement over last year when we ranked 31st. Our current ranking is largely due to the educational level of mothers in this country.

The child mortality rate in the U.S. before the age of five, is 8 in 1000 births. That’s the same ranking as Bosnia. A child in the US is four times as likely as a child in Iceland to die before age five. Forty countries performed better than the US in this category.

The lifetime risk of dying in childbirth in the US is 1 in 2,100, the highest of any industrialized nation.

The US is the only developed country in the world that does not guarantee working mothers paid leave.

The only way to improve our rating is to provide pre-natal and well baby care for women who don’t have insurance or the ability to pay for such care.

With several states attempting to block funding of Planned Parenthood, low-income women and children will have even less care than they receive now.

Yes, Planned Parenthood does do abortions. That’s about 1% of their services. They offer birth control, pre-natal care, nutrition counseling, cancer screenings, vaccinations and a variety of health care services for women, men and children.

We like to think we are the best country in the world. But by limiting accessibility to birth control, pre-natal care and other health services, our ranking for maternal/child health can only go down. That can only harm future generations of Americans.